US Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Washington: A Republican member of the US Senate on Thursday called the chamber's top Democrat Chuck Schumer - the highest-ranking Jewish UD elected official - "Fuhrer," a reference to the title used by Adolf Hitler.
Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno, who was elected in November, made the comment to reporters outside the Senate chamber as members of his caucus struggled to agree on a path forward to try to pass President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-cut agenda.
"Here's the main thing you've got to understand. Republicans are independently minded. Democrats are monolithic sheep that follow the Fuhrer Schumer's orders," Moreno said.
The German word Fuhrer is a political title meaning "leader" that is most associated with Hitler, who led his country into World War Two and was responsible for the deaths of six million Jews.
Schumer has just had a book published titled "Antisemitism in America: A Warning."
Asked about the comment, a Schumer spokesperson replied, "That's textbook antisemitism, so we won't comment on it."
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement to Reuters that there was "no excuse for comparing a Jewish leader in the Senate to Adolf Hitler."
Nazi analogies in politics, he added, "only serve to trivialize the Holocaust and the memory of the six million Jews who perished during World War 2. Moreover, describing a Jewish elected official this way is deeply despicable," Greenblatt said.